Part 110

Discover the different course types in Super Mario 3D Land, including Red Toad Houses, Blue Toad Houses, and Mystery Boxes, and learn how to utilize them for rewards and collectibles.

Listed below are the other types of courses found within Super Mario 3D Land. These are very different to the normal courses that Mario and Luigi endure and provide rewards to help the player along. A full explanation of each type of course will be given, as well as how to fully utilise it.

4.1 Toad Houses (Red)

Red Toad Houses are found in Worlds 1, 2, 5 and 7 and Special Worlds 1, 2, 4, 6 and 8. Each Toad House can be entered once per save file and will give a one-time reward. The three possible rewards from a Red Toad House are: a Fire Flower, a Tanooki Leaf or a Boomerang Flower.

To receive your reward, enter the Toad House (Red) course on the Overworld Map. You'll appear outside of the Toad House. Move up to the door and enter. Inside you'll come upon a Toad and a wrapped present. Jump up and hit the present to open it. One of the three possible rewards will appear. You may take the reward if you wish to, but you can also leave it behind and exit the house. If you do, it's gone and you can't ever get it back. Exit the area completely to move onto the next course on the Overworld Map.

At first glance, the items that you receive from a Toad House may seem random, but there is actually a repeating pattern to the item that appears. See the table below of which item you'll receive from each Toad House and the pattern will quite quickly become apparent.

It's obviously best to make use of Toad Houses when items are most needed. This can be when you are approaching a very difficult course and you need that extra item to aid you in completing it; you are short of items and feel that you could benefit from having one in your inventory; or if you're Small Mario and want to immediately become a stronger form.

Red Toad Houses aren't extremely valuable however (you can relatively easily obtain any of the items that a Red Toad House can give you through other means) and you need to enter all of them to fully complete the game. If you don't feel that you really need their aid, simply enter them as you come upon them and take the item if it will benefit you at all.

Note that you can sometimes gain coins from destroying the blossoms outside, around the house.

4.2 Toad House (Blue)

There is only a single Toad House (Blue) in the entirety of Super Mario 3D Land and it's found in World 3. This Toad House basically acts as a photo album course and can also somewhat gauge your progress through the game, as unlocking certain photos represent certain in-game milestones.

After entering the course, enter the Toad House itself. Inside is a Toad and the Photo Album itself. Touch the Photo Album to open it. Inside are all of the photos that you have currently unlocked. Question marks will occupy the space of any unfound photos. Scroll through them and enjoy! Shaking your 3DS will make the photos move in different ways.

For a list of how to unlock each photo, see the Unlockables [MIS01] Section.

Note that you can sometimes gain coins from destroying the blossoms outside, around the house.

4.3 Mystery Boxes

Mystery Boxes present one of the easiest and quickest ways to collect Star Coins in Super Mario 3D Land. Unless you're extremely unlucky or unskilled at this game, you should leave every Mystery Box with a Star Coin (or two if you've stumbled upon a Golden Box) and considering it takes a whopping 10 seconds to complete one, it really isn't much effort on the player's part.

When a player enters a Mystery Box, they will appear inside the box with at least one enemy that must be defeated (unless it's a Golden Box, which will be explained later). When all enemies are defeated, the Star Coin will appear along with a shower of coins. There may or may not be additional features within a box, most notably items such as Fire Flowers or Tanooki Leaves. Make sure you collect everything of value within a Mystery Box each and every time.

You won't score yourself a Star Coin every time though; the contents of a box is always random. If you are given a box that you've a